SB 8.7.39
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
TEXT 39
- prāṇaiḥ svaiḥ prāṇinaḥ pānti
- sādhavaḥ kṣaṇa-bhaṅguraiḥ
- baddha-vaireṣu bhūteṣu
- mohiteṣv ātma-māyayā
SYNONYMS
prāṇaiḥ — by lives; svaiḥ — their own; prāṇinaḥ — other living entities; pānti — protect; sādhavaḥ — devotees; kṣaṇa-bhaṅguraiḥ — temporary; baddha-vaireṣu — unnecessarily engaged in animosity; bhūteṣu — unto living entities; mohiteṣu — bewildered; ātma-māyayā — by the external energy of the Lord.
TRANSLATION
People in general, being bewildered by the illusory energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, are always engaged in animosity toward one another. But devotees, even at the risk of their own temporary lives, try to save them.
PURPORT
This is the characteristic of a Vaiṣṇava. Para-duḥkha-duḥkhī: a Vaiṣṇava is always unhappy to see the conditioned souls unhappy. Otherwise, he would have no business teaching them how to become happy. In materialistic life, people must certainly engage in activities of animosity. Materialistic life is therefore compared to saṁsāra-dāvānala, a blazing forest fire that automatically takes place. Lord Śiva and his followers in the paramparā system try to save people from this dangerous condition of materialistic life. This is the duty of devotees following the principles of Lord Śiva and belonging to the Rudra-sampradāya. There are four Vaiṣṇava sampradāyas, and the Rudra-sampradāya is one of them because Lord Śiva (Rudra) is the best of the Vaiṣṇavas (vaiṣṇavānāṁ yathā śambhuḥ). Indeed, as we shall see, Lord Śiva drank all the poison for the benefit of humanity.